It's always fascinating to see an old idea brought back after years. Such is the case for today's title, Dragon's Crown.

Originally conceived for the Dreamcast in 1998, Dragon's Crown was developed by Vanillaware, the studio most well-known for Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade which was formed by former Atlus members responsible for the title Princess Crown, a Sega Saturn title released in 1997. In fact, Dragon's Crown was originally conceived by George Kamitani, the founder of Vanillaware, as a Dreamcast title sometime after the production of Princess Crown but partially due to their inability to find a publisher and the studio's focus on other projects, Dragon's Crown would not resurface until more recent years. Even then, the title still had trouble getting released, the main issue once again being finding a publisher. Ignition Games was set to publish the title but now that job is being handled by Atlus. And after all that, the title still found a way to draw criticism before its release. The release date of 2012 set by Ignition Games was pushed back to 2013 and the rumored price point of $30 was nothing more than that, as it wouldn't allow the title to be profitable, and many were quick to respond by saying that it being a 2D brawler that it wasn't worth full-retail price, a criticism that has been launched before at the likes of Rayman: Origins simply on the basis of 2D hand-drawn titles being worthy of nothing more than a digital release for ten bucks as opposed to the common polygon filled, 8-hour retail releases of today, despite the fact that Dragon's Crown is not being released for the regular price of $60. One would be remiss if they didn't note the other controversy surrounding the title's artistic choice, but we'll get into that one later on. For now, it's time to take up arms for Dragon's Crown.

Gameplay

Dragon's Crown is a beat em’ up that balances between modernizing the classic multiplayer brawler and paying homage to classic beat em' ups of the past, most notably Capcom's Dungeon and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara and SEGA’s Golden Axe series. You choose from six different classes, ranging from the powerful dwarf to the swift archer, each having their own unique abilities which can be further enhanced with the many skills. The skill system has a ton of choices, some of which are exclusive to each class while others are for every class, all of which can be upgraded multiple times and help further flesh out each character along with the exclusive equipment. In addition, there are RPG elements that help add more depth to your character and their actions, like luck, intelligence, and the obligatory you must be this level to wield this piece of equipment. Dragon’s Crown also features a rather odd mechanic in which you interact with the environment with the second analog stick to find items and coins to collect or open up chests. It’s not exactly well-fleshed out and can be really tedious searching for all the items, at least if you’re the kind of person like myself who searches for the most miniscule thing in each level. Likewise, the runes you collect and use are difficult to activate in the heat of battle and like the item searching can be rather tedious in finding which runes will work, but it can be especially helpful in a difficult battle.

Now, this being a beat-em up, the point is to beat as many enemies as possible while racking up a high score, preferably with a friend or three on your couch, and Dragon’s Crown more than delivers on that. Combat is immensely satisfying as you pummel through hoards of enemies and crush weaker foes with a couple of powerful blows. At the same time, it also modernizes some of the design choices that have become largely irrelevant for the beat em’ up genre in modern days. How do you make score relevant to a beat em' up as opposed to an insignificant number? Why, convert your score to XP, thus making the exploration of levels for items that are otherwise useless outside of extra lives have a point to them. It’s little tweaks like that which make Dragon’s Crown a more refreshing experience than many of the games it took inspiration from. There’s branching stages, each having a different boss to accompany them. On that note, the boss battles are some of the best of any beat em’ up. While they’re not all winners, there’s a great amount of creativity and variety to each boss fight.

After defeating the boss of a given stage, you’re given the option to either go back to town or continue on your adventure. Continuing on can result in getting better gear from chests, more gold or a higher score, a choice which can be difficult when you’re eight stages in since your equipment can break and will have to be repaired. It creates a good risk and reward system between going through a massive amount of stages and getting an even more massive reward or playing it safe and not running the risk of losing all your lives, gold or health potions. In between stages, there’s a mini-game that may pop up where you cook food to improve your party’s stats. Like the runes and item-searching, it’s a bit difficult to manage cooking for four players when the controls aren’t exactly solid for this portion, but there’s no enemies to interfere, unlike the other two. There are quests to do on the side that will give you a reward of the usual experience, coin, skill points and unlock-able artwork. In the end, they’re just an optional method of getting valuable skill points and don’t interfere with the main campaign, of which Dragon’s Crown boasts a very robust one that will take roughly 20 hours to beat. All of it filled with everything you’ve come to love from beat em’ ups: co-op chaos, beast riding and midget assaulting good times.

At this point, it should be noted that the PlayStation Vita version has some features that work better than its console counterpart. For one, using the touch screen to find items, cooking and use runes is much easier than using the analog stick, though one disappointment that both games have are that difficulty settings and multiplayer need to be unlocked by playing the game to a certain point a la Secret of Mana, which is just a poor design choice: Let's lock out a key selling feature for the first couple of hours and punish players who aren't as skilled as the designers expect them to be. It actually very reminiscent of Castle Crashers, which suffers from a lot of the same problems: Solo adventuring can drag on at times, multiplayer action quickly evolves from co-op to chaos and a difficulty feature that can only be unlocked after beating the game. Unlike Castle Crashers, you’ll likely be accompanied by NPCs that you can recruit by resurrecting them from bones you find as you explore each stage, which does help alleviate some of the more tedious battles. And like Castle Crashers, the sheer joy of beating up groups of enemies is amusing and the boss fights so creative and epic that you're willing to overlook these flaws, and Dragon's Crown's own mechanics sets itself apart from many of its modern contemporaries while paying homage to the past. It's a perfect balance of new-school refinement and old-school arcade fun.

Presentation

Now, for the part which will not be fun to discuss: The controversy surrounding the title and subsequently, the presentation. It's about time to address it, so let's do that. Earlier this year, Jason Schreir of Kotaku wrote about Dragon’s Crown’s character design, namely for the sorceress and criticized it for being something a teenage would draw. In response, artist George Kamitani drew a picture of naked dwarves and said that Jason would probably prefer that if he wasn’t into the ladies.

Jason later apologized for insulting Kamitani-san and George apologized, explaining the reasoning for the art design, namely to parody the typical Tolkien designs in fantasy games.

When writing this review, I tried my best to avoid inserting myself into the review or speaking about the topic, but it simply needed to be addressed, or at the very least, noted. All reviews are opinion-based after all, so it's all up to personal preference. I can't pretend to speak for everyone, so i'll only speak for myself: While I understand what Kamitani-san was going for, with the exaggerated physical features and whatnot, i'm not a fan of the overall art design. The amazon in particular looking far too over-muscled to be anything more than severely misshapen and the witch's bust size blurring the line between caricature and self-parody without any sense of irony. It is interesting that, much as Katamari wished to emphasize features on the typical Tolkien-esque designs, the thing that sticks out the most in Dragon's Crown is there is a design for a female protagonist that is sensibly designed which has been completely ignored in the overblown controversy: The elf.

The elf is perhaps the most well-designed character of the lot. Her legs are exaggerated slightly, but not to the point of caricature, the clothing is sensible and any skin shown makes sense given the role of which the elf plays. It's an overall great design that stands out amongst the rest of the other female characters, playable or not, as a sexy design without being over-sexualized. However, putting aside preferences, the actual artwork and its quality is Vanillaware's greatest yet. It's their first title to be in HD and the detail shines through, with character animation given the upmost attention and lavish backgrounds that are simply stunning, boasting multiple levels of depth. Even on the Vita's tiny screen, the detail is simply exquisite, though it should be noted that the Vita version does see some slowdown on the occasion. The sound design has some great sound effects and the music does its job, making each stage feel like an epic quest on a grandiose scale, though no tracks stick out or in your head after hours of play. As for voice work, it's minimal in terms of variety, with the narrator doing most of the telling for the storytelling. It's a decent effort, but like the music accompanying it, it's not what one would describe as memorable. The most memorable part of Dragon's Crown doesn't lie in any particular level design, but the design of the art for a given level, all of which are visual masterpieces. If this is what Vanillaware can deliver on their first high-definition experience, then keep your eyes open for what's in store next after taking a look at this gorgeous title.

Verdict

Dragon's Crown, be it for the Vita or the PS3, is the summarization of everything you've come to love from a good ol' time in the arcades with your friends while modernizing aspects to provide a more enjoyable and refined experience. Controversy aside, it is the finest beat em' up to come out in years and worthy of any Playstation 3 or PlayStation Vita library.

Overall: 8.5/10

On September 30th, 1998, Pokémon Red and Blue were released in North America, becoming a phenomenon over night that would last for years. I was four years old at the time and at my school, everyone was talking about it. Some of us would watch the show while we waited for our parents to pick us up. Some kids were lucky enough to have a GameBoy and a copy of Pokémon Red to pass the time. I wasn't one of them.

I was that kid. The one in the playground who sat around and watched rather than play along with, the one who always begged his friends for the slightest chance to play them. I played video games before with them of course, but I never got the chance to play anything like Pokémon. So of course, i'd beg my parents to buy me a Gameboy and the game to go along with it. On my fifth birthday, my wish was granted. I opened up a present from my parents and found my very own GameBoy Colour and my very first game. It was called NBA Showtime.

Yes, this was the first game I ever owned. A sports title. But we're not going to talk about that since aside from being the very first game I ever owned, there's very little I have to say on it and it holds little nostalgic value. I was still happy I had my very own GameBoy, though the disappointment of t getting a Pokémon game wouldn't go away as my friends continued to play and trade amongst themselves. Around my sixth Christmas or seventh birthday, my uncle stopped by and dropped off a present for me. In it was a Strategy Guide and a copy of Pokémon Silver. When I first popped this game into my Gameboy, my mind was blown. I felt I had never played anything like it. There were so many battles enjoyed, memories made, friendships formed and hundreds of hours poured into this portable masterpiece. To this day, it remains among my favorite games, and the first step into my love for video games.

I wish I could say I still own my original copy but my brother had the brilliant idea to give away to his friend and I never got it back. And you wonder why I don't let you play with my two Gold versions. Well, one working version, the battery died in this one, anyway, from then on, I was hooked on the series, I would hunt down the older games and look forward to every new entry with breathless enthusiasm. That is, I used to look forward to them. But at the time the DS generation hit, my excitement in the series began to wane even as me and my friends would play, trade and battle one another more often than ever before. Yes, Diamond and Pearl made several improvements to battles and I admire Black and White for trying to shake things up, but trying and accomplishing are not the same thing, and the changes that were made in both games were either unsubstantial or detrimental to making it feel like a brand new experience as opposed to another Pokémon game that i'd played before. Now before anyone accuses me of thinking that the older games were so much better and have absolutely no flaws, I can say from my experience that, replaying a lot of games from my youth, a lot of them just aren't very good or have aged poorly. Likewise, there are titles which stayed the same or have gotten better with age, and the first few Pokémon games were just a few of them. It's not like I don't notice flaws in the titles I love. You guys know how brutal I can be with certain series. I know they're not perfect, it's me doling out tough love. And there is no series whose love I am more brutal with handing out than Pokémon. My enthusiasm can only go so far for this series and when there are games that haven't just matched what they can do, but surpass it in every regard, it's hard for me to get excited for a new Pokémon title. Which brings us to today. Well, January the 8th actually. See, I had finished recording for a video late that night and I remembered there was going to be a Pokémon themed Nintendo Direct. So, out of pure curiosity, I thought I would give it a look, thinking it would be just another spin-off announced that got blown out of proportion.

Instead, we got this.

There is no easy way of putting this without offending Pokémon fans but... I couldn't be less excited about Pokémon and Y if I tried.

Now don't take this the wrong way, i'm not saying the games look bad, I'm sure it'll be good, heck, if I had to, i'd bet it's probably going be great. But that's the problem. I don't want this generation to be just "good". I want this generation to be the next big step, for this generation to really change the way Pokémon is played. I imagine many of you are already leaping to the comment section to label me as another fan who longs for the good ol' days before Vanillite and Trubbish ruined Pokémon even though we had creeps like Mr. Mime running around in the generations we hold so close under our rose-coloured glasses. Let me explain. I realize that I may not ever experience X and Y the way I did before with the previous generators. But I also realize that now is a critical point for Pokémon to make that critical leap forward into the third dimension that other Nintendo properties have pulled off with expertise. Super Mario 64 was, for its time, a revolutionary title that brought platformers into the third dimension. Ocarina of Time created the template for all third person action titles to learn from and build upon. And do I even need to waste a second explaining why you need to play Metroid Prime? It invented the first person adventure genre and remains the top dog in it for a reason! Pokémon X & Y is the game that i've been waiting my entire life for, for Pokémon to jump into the third dimension and make some big changes. Get out of here, I meant the jump for the main series. But, seeing what I have thus far, my enthusiasm is gone. It just looks like they're making this one because they need one for the 3DS. So what could possibly bring back my attention to these games? Well, i've thought about it and come up with a list of things that hopefully will be in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y.

Now, before I begin, I just want you to know that this is all just personal opinion. Feel free to disagree with what i've said and what i'm about to say. With that said, these are my Top Ten Hopes For Pokémon X and Pokémon Y!

10 - Difficulty mode: Pokémon is aimed at kids to be sure, but they're not the only people who play them. So why ? I don't just mean making them have higher levels like what they did in Black and White 2 (which by the way, you had to beat the game for), I mean make the game a greater challenge, throw in some different parties for trainers, make them smarter on higher difficulties with more powerful moves. And if you think that won't change it up, grant better rewards for more skilled players. Instead of getting shock wave from the Gym Leader, why not Thunderbolt? . Oh and since I know someone is going to bring this up in the comments, don't even get me started on Nuzlocke.

9 - No more recycled Pokémon sounds: This is something that baffles me about the Pokémon series, even in the early games (sound of Charmeleon, Rhydon). That being said, it's 2013 on a brand new console. Just let it go and stop recycling those headache inducing screeches.

Oh, and while we're at it, can we get rid of the annoying low health beep and not try to cover it up with a song? It's annoying either way, i'm not blind Game Freak, but if you keep this up, I might be going death!

8 - A New Type: (No, not the light type people keep suggesting, although I wouldn't object to that either). I also heard about the supposed Fairy Type but I highly doubt they'll introduce a Type like that when Clefairy has been the Fairy species of Pokémon for years, it'd be like if they made Lairon an Iron Type Pokémon. As for ideas for a new Type, what about an element like aether? See, aether is the fifth element in Ancient Greek based on the Hindu word Akasha. It means purity, a form like air but can also be fiery, incendiary at times. I think a Pokémon like that could really shake up the metagame, able to inflict pain to the flammable Grass types while doling out its purity power to Poison, Bug, Ghost and those rusty Steelix in Iron Island. Tell me you wouldn't want all of that in one type.

7 - Significant Version Exclusives: Emphasis on the word significant. Up to this point, the most notable difference between is that one version gives you this Legendary on the box and the other one does not. As someone who typically avoids spoiling the newest Pokémon before release, this is pretty much pointless. In the old game, it made sense, it was a marketing ploy to sell more GameBoys, Link Cables and Pokémon games. But with the advent of cable-less wi-fi allowing you to trade these exclusives over the world, it's pretty much useless to have two versions besides well, marketing, money and tradition. Yeah, we got Black City and White Forest in Black and White, but one town isn't cutting it. One of the oldest things that i've missed ever since Gold and Silver was the different sprites between the two versions. It wasn't a reason to go out and buy both, but it was neat to see the same Pokémon pose differently. How about in X they pose like this or that or attack differently in Y? What about in each version you go on different paths that has you fight different Trainers, get exclusive items and TMs. That way, trading between the two wouldn't just be for that one or two Pokémon you couldn't otherwise get, it would be for goodies you collected on your adventure. Heck, what about different Gym Leaders, there's seventeen types at this point, it wouldn't be hard to divide them between two versions with exclusive Gyms and themes.

6 - Customizable Appearances... for your Pokémon: Haha, you thought I was going to talk about changing the main character's look, didn't you? Well while i'd love to play as a fat Chinese girl named Elizabeth, it's not desirable enough for it to place on this list. Besides, you'll be spending most of your time in battle seeing your Pokémon battle. Now, aside from just making them look different, they could play as a second held item that affects stats, like a beret that raises special defense. I dare you to tell me you wouldn't like seeing your top hat wearing Charmander facing off against a Tyranitar stroking his elegant mustache.

5 - Non-Pokémon Enemies: One of the things I admire Pokémon Black & White for is that they tried to take the series' plot in a new direction. Team Plasma, a group of radical people dressed in the most unfabulous villain clothing, make an argument about whether it's really right to make Pokémon fight in, and let's be honest guys, glorified cock fights. I say I admire this because their argument completely falls flat when they fight you with Pokémon. You know what this reminds me of?

"Pokémon aren't meant to fight. Not like this" - Pokémon The First Movie

Yes, fighting is bad, let me show you by knocking your teeth out in a fight! Funny how the latest Pokémon game's moral argument is on the same level as Pokémon the First Movie. I mean, seriously Game Freak, you pretty much made Team Plasma, for lack of a better comparison... Pe... No, not even Team Plasma has the immoral disgust to kill Lillipups and Purloins. Point is, they could easily fix this dilemma and still made it feel like it was Pokémon. How? By making the battles you fight against them be robots. Yes, robots, it'd be like fighting Pokémon except for the hypocrisy in making them fight. I mean, why not? They've used robots in the television show all the time, would having them in the game be so radically different? Oh, and just like the show, they could have different robots for different situations. One robot could absorb electricity, another could be fire-proof or launch missiles. Heck, let us build a robot, how awesome would that be?

4 - Time Travel: When it comes to games and time travel, they tend to be hit or miss, but when they hit, RPGs tend to be a great choice if done well. Chrono Trigger or Radiant Historia anyone? And what better fit could there be for the series than merging Pokémon with time travel. This would give Ken Sugimori and the other artists a reason to create some truly unique character designs and stop reusing the token bird, rodent, bug and just let them draw whatever they want. They wanna make an anime- cynognathus (Ki-nog-nathus)? Go for it! They want to show what'll happen when Pokémon from other planets invade Earth? Sounds good. There's so much potential if they decided to use time travel in the game besides new designs, you could explore different regions or the same region in a different time period, maybe alter the past to make new Pokémon appear, learn different moves in different time periods, explore the mythos behind this region, that's just the few that I can think of myself, i'm sure Game Freak could come up with something even better if they tried it. Seriously, why haven't they tried this yet? Just do it Game Freak!

3 - Multiple Save Files: I don't know about the rest of you but occasionally, I like to restart my game and start of fresh, get a new starter, maybe even get some eggs. However, I also don't like losing all my powerful team of Pokémon that I spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours, honing to perfection. This is 2013 people. No one should have to complain about needing more than one save file for any their games! Or transferring their Pokémon from generation to generation and losing their items. You want to know one of the reasons I love Persona 4? You know, aside from the great characters, fun combat and being just a fantastic overall game? You get 16 save files. Persona 4 was made in 2008. Pokémon Black and White 2 came out last year and only lets you have one save file. What is your excuse Game Freak?

2 - No More Damn Fire-Fighting Evolutions. And no, this isn't a joke, I really am putting this high. I mean... why?! Why are the Fire-Type starters the only ones to always have the same type three games in a row? Ok, Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire were meant to be a reintroduction to the series with a fresh new take so the first Gym Leader being a rock type made sense, making Combusken Fire Fighting helped out beginners with the first Gym and Blaziken looked pretty cool. But then Diamond and Pearl thought that would be the best thing to take away from Ruby/Sapphire and made this thing... Infernape... As you can guess, i'm not a fan of having another monkey Pokémon. Especially when we already have a Fighting Type monkey.

And when I first saw the starters for Pokémon Black and White, I was honestly a bit happy when I saw Tepig. It may not be an amazing design, but I thought to myself, there's no way that they could change this little porker into sweet merciful Arceus, what the hell is that?

People complain about the ice cream cone and not this? I mean, yeah, the ice cream is stupid but at least it looks tasty. This thing, just... why why why why why?! I kid you not when I say this, giving us any other typing, any type combo, would be an upgrade to the Fire-Type starter from this. Most people seem to think the newest Firefox is a Psychic-Fire Type and I hope that's true, because if it picks up any Fighting Type, something will be super effective on it.

Game Freak, if I want to fight fire, i'm going to call up Smokey Bear.

1 - ? Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We have the capabilities to make the world's first Pokémon Nintendo Network in the games. Pokemon X and Y will be that game. Better then it was before. Better, more modes, faster. They will be, Pokémon X & Y multiplayer. Yes, my top pick of this list is better online multiplayer. Despite the prospect of global battling and trading and no more tangled four player link cables, only the latter has really reached its potential. The former has been a massive disappointment either due to always meeting up with some whose team is filled with Level 100 Legendaries or the tedious nature of the long battle animations and messages you have to read. When I am more willing to set my Wii back up and put in Pokémon Battle Revolution instead of waiting an hour for my Pokémon to make its move, there's something wrong with your multiplayer. And don't get me started on whatever mess was the Dream World. This time around, don't make us have to type out these arbitrary Friend Codes or have to register on some site or whatever the heck the C-Gear was, just let us match up with someone online through a vast amount of options with no limits on the same items we can hold and let us have a good time. Do what MarioKart Wii did and award points to wins and losses, both solo and team matches. This way, the online battles aren't filled with people who are out of your league or below you and there's an incentive to put in a multiplayer match or two. If you want, you could use these points to get brand new items for battling or to improve your rank instead of the Level 50 class and Level 100 classes, which was stupid, but still keep your ranked title on the road to being the very best. Use Streetpass and let us meet up with other Trainers in the area a la Secret Bases for item collecting and duking it out. Also, expand the modes beyond the minuscule amount that we have now. What about a Rivalry Mode, Co-op Mode, Type Mode, Starter Mode, Random Mode? Heck, give us a Tournament Mode. If the multiplayer included a Tournament Mode, then I would be more than willing to try a tournament with you guys. Not because I have so few friends to play with. Not just at least, but from my own experience, I can say that i've enjoyed playing tournaments with my friends with a lot of Pokémon games. Take up everything that has worked in the past and just go wild with the multiplayer modes. Pokémon is a series that was created to connect people, first by trading, then battling. Now more than ever, they can do that. Launching at around the same time in all regions, how cool would it be to battle someone across the world, Day 1 with no strings attached in Pokémon X and Y? What a wonderful game that would be. That is why better multiplayer features are number one on my hopes for Pokémon X & Y.

Those are my Top 10 Hopes for the next generation and jump to 3D for Pokémon. As a closing note, i'd like to point out that as a fan of the series, I really do hope that X and Y turn out to be masterpieces. But as a fan, I also realize that there's times when you just have to be brutally honest, and this is one of those times. Until next time, game on my friends.

Today's review was... tricky. And by tricky, I mean, it was difficult to find a way to properly talk about this series of which this title is a part of given the vast amount of recognition and background behind it without turning this into a history lesson of the entire franchise. I am of course talking about Shin Megami Tensei.

Sorry, let me correct that, it's Megami Tensei. Why is it called that? Well in 1986, a novel called Digital Devil Story: Reincarnation of the Goddess, the first in a trilogy, was written by Aya Nitishitani. In 1987 a little Japanese company called Atlus made a game called Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei a dungeon crawler that was based on the aforementioned novel. Interestingly enough, the first game was published by Namco, not Atlus. Megami Tensei's gameplay can be best described as Pokémon but more mature. And challenging. With a better plot. Since its inception, it's been referred to as the third quintessential JRPG series along with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Unlike those series, the multitude of Megami Tensei spin-offs have received vast amounts of praise from critics and gamers alike, sometimes even moreso than the main entries. Persona IV or Devil Survivor anyone? Which brings us to today's title: Originally a spin-off of the main series released in 1997 on the Sega Saturn, Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers was intended to be localized on the Playstation but Sony refused to let them. 16 years later, it has finally been remade for the Nintendo 3DS and released outside of Japan for the very first time.

The story begins with you, a citizen of Amami City and hacker from a group called Spookies, who for lack of a better word, hacks his way into a beta called Paradigm X where a coyote spirit named Kinap warns you about a future catastrophe and sends you on a vision quest to live through someone else's life before they die. This person fights a shadowy organization called the Phantom Society with demons by summoning devils from a gun-shaped computer called a GUMP and tries to download a program which also contains a demon which is the key to i've gone cross-eyed. Yeah, a bit confusing at first, isn't it? And all of this happens in the first half hour. From there, you unravel a conspiracy involving the use a special computer chip and a sudden disease in Amami City that's connected to the Paradigm X beta while your friend Hitomi is possessed by a white-haired demon named Nemissa. There's a ton going on in the plot but somehow Soul Hackers makes sense out of it to form a rather solid narrative. For 1997, this is pretty good writing, no doubt thanks to solid localization. And with a date like that, it's even more impressive how the game tackles the benefits and problems that have risen with the growing reliance on digital information. Remember, in the 1990s, the internet was still relatively new to the public despite decades of use by governments. Heck, most people just referred to it as the information superhighway because of the massive amount of information it allowed to be shared, and I guarantee that at that time, no one would believe that the information transferred through this highway could lead to benefits like online markets and fast, reliable long distance communication via electronic mail or issues like identity theft, internet compulsion, predators and perhaps most terrifying of all, 9Gag. Soul Hackers fully embraces and explores the good and the bad on almost everything that's come out of the internet, like telling yourself one more minute on YouTube and then realizing you're an hour late for work or always relying on spellcheckz when yur wring your next script lulz. Also, Yu-Gi-Oh reference, tha's fly bro. Though speaking of spell-check, the translation is spotty at points with dialogue skipping a line or lack of proper grammar. The delivery is occasionally rushed, though it's still done well as one would expect from Atlus and there's a handy digest to keep you informed on your goal if you missed something. It's also very funny too, how many games let you tell a demon that god created us because he just felt like it or defeating a monkey by solving riddles. As enjoyable as this may sound though, it's not all excellent storytelling. The main character is silent and yet has a sister, parents and friends and never says a word to them. I know most Megami Tensei tends to have a silent lead, but I still have to ask, why in this game of all of them would this make sense? You have an established background and relationships with other people, there's no need to try to project us onto this blank slate, it just takes you out of the world. This is a perfect example of when not to use a silent protagonist. Thankfully, this blunder is made up with the true star of the story, Nemissa, a mysterious demon who often refers to herself in third person. She's charming, smart, sassy, plays off her host Hitomi well and is just a ton of fun to be around. And I agree with Lunch, white looks good on her. There's a reason why she's on the cover of the game: She is the star of this game, and she shines bright throughout the entire adventure.

If this was the original writing in 1997, then time has only improved it. Soul Hackers may not speak as loud as its contemporaries, but it makes up for it with a compelling leading lady and a world parallel world to ours that is both relatable and engaging. The question now is whether or not the rest of the game holds up as well.

Soul Hackers is an old school, first person dungeon crawler, you move on a grid base from point A to B where you'll most likely trigger and event or fight a boss. If you're familiar with the Megami Tensei, you should be familiar with that and the demons roaming around that you can talk to. Talking with demons can result in being healed, enemies fleeing from battle, learning new information on your way to the end goal, negotiating for an item or their allegiance or instantly joining you free of charge. It's the best way to get them to join your ranks, the success of which depends on the moon phases. Some demons may not ever join you while other times the same response gives you a different response. It's based on their personality, not their species, which leads me to the Loyalty system. Unlike several other Megami Tensei titles, demons don't level up. Instead, they each have a loyalty meter, which goes up and down depending on how you treat them. If you give them the right commands and items pertaining to their personality, they'll stay happy. If you force them around and never reward them, it'll go down, and you'll want to keep them happier demons are stronger than those that aren't. That and those with lower loyalty might disobey you or even leave, so it quickly becomes a priority to keep them happy. Though if it ever gets that low, there's a good chance you'd be better off using them to make a new Demon via Demon Fusion. If you've ever played a Megami title, you know how this works, pick two or three devils to fuse together and form a more powerful spawn. This is the key to surviving in Soul Hackers, creating the most powerful demons you can given your level. And it's a good thing to, because for the first couple of hours, combat can be overwhelming when you're ill-equipped and lacking in magic. The battles are much faster than your typical turn-based combat, aided by the time saving auto-battle which cuts down on the time spent time in battle tremendously in a encounter heavy dungeon crawler like this. In addition to keeping your team healthy and your demons happy, you'll also need to keep an eye on your magnetite. No, it's not a misspelled mangemite, it's the source of power for demons in your party. Without it, they can't survive outside of the COMP and you can't summon them. It adds to Devil Summoner Soul Hackers old school level of challenge, and by old school, I mean it in every meaning the word applies to the unforgiving dungeon crawlers of old. This is not a game for the faint at heart, so if you're looking for a challenge, Soul Hackers will be right up your alley. If it ever gets too challenging for you, you can turn down the difficulty level or if you're looking for a real challenge, you can turn things up in the middle of battle. Yes, you can change difficulty even as you're fighting a boss. It's still a rather brutal game, but it's never to the point where you can call it unforgiving. Now this being a remake, Soul Hackers has had a few upgrades to its 32-bit counterparts: There's Nemeichi, a new option which lets you collect D-souls via Streetpass which you can turn in for special demons; the more streetpasses you get, the more D-Souls you get. You can also trade play coins in if you're lonely like me and you can also give neimichi some d-souls to evolve into different forms, which in turn allows more demons for you to use and fuse. Speaking of which, I should mention at this point that this game includes 30 new demons that were not present in the original. So what else was added in to this remake? Voice acting, which we'll get to in a moment, new characters appearing after clearing the game along with an additional dungeon, a few new animations for enemies and attack animations for swords and spells and an animated opening.

I've also been told the 3DS version loads faster, and though I don't own the original, it loads very fast. The most helpful change is the dungeon map that's displays where you haven't gone, traps and doors, all of this is shown on the bottom screen. Something as simple as this makes exploring the dungeons so much easier and faster. It turns something that in other games within the genre is often a chore into a gleeful goal of searching every square for items and new demons to befriend and fuse. Needless to say that you'll still be spending upwards of 30 hours completing this game, even more depending on how invested you get into the Demon Fusion system, customizing your GUMP and the world of Paradigm X, not to mention if you opt to go through a second time via New Game +.

However, for as many good redesigns as this remake does there are a few design choices that that haven't had the same amount of attention to it. For example, you can place points to improve your magic when you never learn to use any magic, which, aside from some equipment, is entirely pointless. The overworld cities are a bit clunky to navigate too, but I can't really think of any first person dungeon crawlers that handles these well. There's also one dungeon which is particularly frustrating but it pays off with a rather touching moment for one of the characters. For whatever issues arise from this 16 year old title, Soul Hackers manages to be rather absorbing, you'll find yourself saying ok, just one dungeon, then several hours later you'll remember you have an economics exam you should be studying. I said you have an economics exams you should studying for. Hey, hop to it!

Finally, the presentation. To reiterate, I don't own a Sega Saturn so I can't say much on how well Devil Summoner Soul Hackers used the system's power, although if I recall the Saturn had the most complex design of the three consoles at the time. However, I do own a 3DS and after seeing the incredibly impressive Shin Megami Tensei IV in action, Soul Hackers leaves a lot to be desired. Certain effects looks slightly better than the Saturn original, artwork is noticeably improved and the new opening is lovely, but the in-game battles are not exactly impressive. Enemies often remain static and backgrounds are, shall we say, trippy. There is some nice attention to detail like character boxes moving when they dodge and enemy health being lower shown with yellow and red numbers in attacks, but the cleaner interface doesn't change the fact that it's not very appealing to one's eyes, nor are the rough textures for dungeons. Also, cutscenes look like they were taken straight from the Saturn version without their resolution adjusted. As for the sound, there's no japanese voice acting, you're only given the North American recordings, which is disappointing, but to their credit, they do a great job with the material they're given. Even NPCs sound authentic profess, though it's worth noting that the Japanese version has more NPC dialogue, several of which were cut during localization. The cast is full of Atlus familiars who give their usual great performances, with Nemissa's voice actor stealing the show as she just gets lost in the character. She alone is worth the price of admission. The soundtrack is mostly updated with a few new tracks like the opening, and while they aren't memorable, they are composed well and fit the situation they're placed in when called upon it. It may not look that impressive, but like the rest of the package, there's a certain appeal to Soul Hackers with one part that really shines through.

Devil Summoner Soul Hackers is undeniably a Shin Megami Tensei spinoff and it's a solid remake of one at that. If you're going in expecting Persona-levels of depth and polish then you're going to be disappointed. If you're looking for an old-school dungeon crawler that's a bit different or you're a huge Megami Tensei fan, then Soul Hackers is a devilish good old time. Now I normally don't give remakes recommendation scores since most of the time you probably know whether or not it's worth getting or not. But since this is the first time it's been released in North America, I feel I can let it slide to give Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers a 8 out of ten. Thanks for watching and as always, game on my friends!

You know what we never seem to get? Good sidekick games. I mean just take a look at the most famous sidekick in games: Luigi.

I think it's fair to say that Luigi's had a pretty poor career, despite his brother's popularity. Sure he can jump higher than his shorter portly partner in time, but when your first standalone title is an edutainment title that is not Oregon's Trail or Cross Country Canada, you've gotten off to a really poor start.

Oh and not having your name in the title probably doesn't help. In some of the spin-offs he outshines his brother, but as far as original games, the green plumber's titles are few and far between, much less good. That is except for the Gamecube launch title, Luigi's Mansion. People tend to either love it for its refreshing gameplay or dismiss it as a glorified tech demo that's lacking in content. Quite ironic since today's title started out with Shigeru Miyamoto testing the original game on the Nintendo 3DS hardware in 2010. Fast forward three years and now we have a sequel to Luigi's Mansion, first titled Luigi's Mansion 2 at E3 2011, it has since been renamed to Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. Why? Because I guess Miyamoto just discovered Pink Floyd. Whatever the reason, under the guidance of Shigeru Miyamoto supervising, Luigi's Mansion: The Great Gig in the Sky is being developed by Next Level Games, a Canadian-based developer most famous for the Mario Strikers series and Captain America Super Soldier. Oh and they also made Punch Out!!.

No, not that one.

Yup. You're welcome for that America! for bringing Luigi and Little Mac back into the ring.

So is Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon worthy of Syd Barrett's blessing? Or is this one a scary pile of leprechaun pellets? Rev up your vacuums and let's find out!

The story can be pretty much be summed up in one sentence: Dr. EGadd from the first game and Superstar Saga asks Luigi for help in a Poltergeist parody to repair a dark moon. That's it. Not that i'd expect a Mario or Luigi game to have some deep plot outside the RPG spinoffs but I will say that the DS or Dual Scream as they call it, as a communication device is semi-clever and seeing Luigi getting abused is amusing as always but aside from that, there's not much to note, it's not a riveting tale of Luigi overcoming his fears as an individual. Again, not a Mario RPG, not going to be worth any more time devoting to it, let's move on the gameplay.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is a blend of puzzle solving and sucking. Sucking up ghosts that is. Between the two, puzzle solving is the dominant activity, usually involves running around the game's five mansions searching for keys, ghouls and the right items to move on to the next area. There are times where the mansions are almost reminiscent of the Legend Zelda dungeons, no doubt because of Miyamoto's hand in the game. Rather good dungeons I might add, equally challenging and fun to explore while always finds new ways to make you explore and utilize every tool you've got to in your Poltergust to advance to the next section. Speaking of which, these sections are largely varied in both structure despite taking place within the same five mansions and in size, ranging from the bit-size 5 minute dog hunts to brain-teasingly clever rooms that can take you well around an hour to complete. At the end of each mission, you're given a rank on one to three stars that details how many coins you collected, Boos and gems, types of ghosts you've collected and possible upgrades to your gear. There's not much of an incentive to improve your score but you will want to go back to find the hidden gems and Boos in order to unlock bonus levels. The controls are smooth, for the most part, only the gyro controls feel a bit awkward. When crossing ledges, it's far too sensitive and moving around the 3DS to vacuum up some ghosts doesn't feel natural. Though maybe that's just because it took time to translate the controls since the manual is in French. Thankfully those are not necessary for what the other core piece of the puzzle is, catching ghosts, which is always satisfying throughout the ten hour adventure. Simply flash the ghosts with your flashlight and then pull back to trap the ghosts. There's a wide variety of these spectres, some easier to capture that others. Some ghosts require you to use your UV ray, some require to be on the move to not get hit, it all adds a refreshing pace that carries out throughout the entire game. Which makes the boss all the more disappointing. Actually, the bosses are 50/50. And I do mean 50/50, the first and final two-parter boss battles are excellent, making you use all your tools and everything you've learned up to that point to win, again, much like Zelda. The bosses in between them are frankly boring. They get a gold star for their creativity but immediately lose it for being un-engaging and tedious, just dodge at the right time and bust those ghosts when their defense is down. Other than the disappointing boss battles, there's only a few minor nitpicks like pressing the touch screen when eGadd calls you, which he does frequently. Since you'll never use the touch pad for anything aside from looking where to go, it's more of a nuisance than a friendly reminder: What's that eGadd? Those ghosts just stole the gears and I should get them? Sure, i'll do the exact same thing I was going to do on my own! And no, there's no button for it, I tried em' all. Early on, some objectives are hidden by the fixed camera angle but you'll quickly learn to search every part of the mansion that you can anyway. The game can be quite easy at times and then have a sudden difficulty spike. Lastly there's escort missions with Toad. While they do lead to some creative puzzles, the good is outweighed by having to drag them around throughout the entire stage and protect them from the ghosts. Other than that, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon's single player campaign is hauntingly fun. Oh and there's multiplayer. And it's pretty poor. You can't communicate with the other players, the levels are completely random and it's all much less polished than its single-player counterpart. If this was some Rush Mode it would be fine, but with anymore than one person and his becomes so chaotic that you'd be better off sticking to the far superior than the tacked on multiplayer.

Finally, the presentation. This is probably the second best looking game on the system, second only to Resident Evil: Revelations. It's more cartoonish and colourful than it is detailed, that's to say Dark Moon doesn't have its own fair share of refinement. In fact, I actually prefer Dark Moon's gloomily charming mansions over Revelations snowy mountains. The mansions are wonderful to look at and atmospheric without being too dark to see ahem and puts the 3D to great use without ever needing to remind to use it a-hem. Luigi is very expressive, displaying a wide variety of emotions that's always amusing to see. Voice acting is the usual grunts for the characters, which is to be expected though EGadd's gets rather annoying since he's only got three and there's little variation in between them. The music is eerily catchy and whimsically silly. You may not look forward to EGadd, but you'll be jamming to his Dual Scream's ringtone. Overall, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is masterfully presented title in the light.

Luigi outshines his brother and it's not just the flashlight he's carrying; the game is a refreshing change of pace for the younger plumber that only stumbles occasionally in the dark. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon gets an 8 and a half out of 10. If you're finished playing Fire Emblem: Awakening for the millionth time and you're looking for the 3DS' next killer app, then the Mushroom Kingdom's green ghost-busting heroes adventure is for you. Thanks for watching and until next time, game on my friends. Take us out Syd Barret!